music
The enigma machine
KC-based alt-rock quartet Shiner returns to form with 'The Egg'
By Geoff Harkness
SHINER'S ALLEN EPLEY, right, is backed by bassist Paul Malinowski.
gharkness@ljworld.com
Allen Epley is here to shatter myths. The Shiner singer-guitarist — one of the area's most prominent frontmen during the early '90s — is quick to blast holes in the theory that there ever was a "golden age" of local music in the first place.
"I think the myth of that time was bigger than it actually was," Epley says during a recent interview. "KC was supposed to break out as the next big thing after Minneapolis or Seattle or Austin or wherever the scene was. And then it didn't materialize."
The aftershocks of that let-down are still being felt around the area, according to Epley, who insists that music fans should keep their collective chins up when it comes to hometown pride.
"Every town, when we go (on the road), thinks that their
town sucks the most," he adds. "It's inevitable, unless you live in New York or Chicago. I honestly don't think the people and the band's in town know how good it is in KC. Because out-of-town, they
do know. They go, 'What the (expletive) is in the water in KC; what are you guys doing?' There's a million bands around here, and if you really break it down per capita there's a lot of great bands in this town — younger bands, too. The main zenith of the Kansas City scene has yet to be."
Maybe Shiner can help. With the recent release of its fourth effort, "The Egg," and a handful of high-profile gigs already booked, the band is looking to have a banner year. Though the group probably won't be accepting gold sales awards anytime soon, it remains one of the area's most
"Every town, when we go (on the road), thinks that their town sucks the most. It's inevitable"
acclaimed acts, a high-energy live group with a small-but-devoted fanbase. For now, that's probably more than enough.
- Shiner frontman Allen Epley
Emocore excellence
Shiner's first CD, 1995's "Splay," was recorded and mixed in only five days — and it came across that way. A murky sound, combined with a bit too much of the then-trio's early math-rock leanings, made for a fairly inauspicious debut, one that Epley and company are happy to forget.
"I still cringe at several points on every record," the singer-guitarist says. "I generally have the same reservations about each record. I don't think 'Splay's' recorded great."
Determined to get it right the second time around, the trio more than made up for 'Splay's' shortcomings with 1997's "Lula Divinia," an album that perfectly balanced Shin-
er's alt-rock and hard-rock influences. Tim Dow's geometrical drumming and Paul Malinowski's pummeling bass laid a foundation for Epley's torn jeans riffage and tenebrous
vocals, sounding like a group that knew exactly where it was going. That sense of confidence, combined with Epley's knack for obsessive wordplay, got the band a fair amount of local attention. Unfortunately, songs like "Semper Fi,"where the singer slurred his hellish lyrics across a telephone wire, were compressed with just enough distortion-pedal angst to get the band branded with the emo stamp.
"It's so funny that we've been tagged as an emo band," Epley says. "To me, emo was always Sunny Day Real Estate and stuff like that. When The Get Up Kids began to kind of define it, I was like, 'Oh, that's
emo?' I just called it pop. But I can't worry about what people are gonna call us. I saw one of our records on eBay the other day that said, 'emocore excellence! We've been called so much, and none of it has ever really affected us. But it's interesting to me that we've been lumped into an emo kind of thing."
No star
After the departure of Dow, Shiner was reconfigured as a four-piece, adding guitarist Josh Newton and former Molly McGuire drummer Jason Gerken to the fold.
Gerken's drumming eliminated some of the band's overt number crunching, and the addition of Newton brought a beefy new element to Shiner's sound. Like Bruce Banner turning into the Hulk, Shiner morphed from workaday to monstrous.
"Adding Josh into the whole mix has been the real liberating thing," Epley says. "He's been the one who's really liberated our thoughts as far as what we can do. His background in music and what he does and the way he
PLEASE SEE Shiner, PAGE 4
INSIDE
Music
Rebel yell Black Rebel Motorcycle Club finds itself on one wild tour.
page 5
Sports
page 18
Baby Formula A novice columnist gets schooled at the Brickyard 500 in Indianapolis.
TV
No red carpet TV's most glamorous night dresses down for the occasion.
page 19
Cover illustration by Justin Hampton
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Sunday's Arts
Lawrence
native
Sara
Paretsky
talks
about her
new novel.
The Mag is a weekly arts and entertainment guide published on Thursdays by the Lawrence Journal- World, 609 N.H., Lawrence 66044.
2 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4., 2001
THE MAG/LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD